Elbow for fence post

ABSTRACT

An elbow for fence post includes an elbow body and a connector. The elbow body and the fence post are connected through the connector. An insertion hole is opened in the middle of the connector, and the lower end of the elbow body is configured to be inserted into the insertion hole under an interference fit. The outer ring of the connector has an annular groove which is configured to be embeds into the upper end of the post and connects with the external diameter under an interference fit.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application claims priority to and the benefit of Chinese PatentApplication No. 201721213811.5, filed on Sep. 20, 2017, in the StateIntellectual Property Office of the People's Republic of China, theentire content of which is incorporated herein by reference.

BACKGROUND 1. Field

The following description relates to an elbow for fence post, anassembled fence post including the same, and an assembled fenceincluding the same.

2. Description of the Related Art

For fence posts with elbows, the fence posts between every two fenceunits have the connecting and support role. Accordingly, the externaldiameter (or cross-section) of the fence posts would be much larger thanthat of the fence (e.g., the fence bars). As to the connecting methodbetween the fence (e.g., fence bar) and the fence post, Chinese patentapplication number 200810154947.2, which was filed by the applicant ofthe current application, discloses a connection device including aconnecting rod, an upper and a lower connecting piece and a springconnecting piece. This approach has made the welding unnecessary.

SUMMARY

Aspects according to one or more embodiments of the present inventionare directed toward an elbow for fence posts, a method of utilizing theelbow, and an assembled fence including the elbow.

Additional aspects will be set forth in part in the description whichfollows and, in part, will be apparent from the description, or may belearned by practice of the presented embodiments.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, an elbow for fencepost includes an elbow body having an upper end and a lower end facingaway from the upper end; and a connector. The connector includes aninsertion hole in a middle thereof configured to be connected with thelower end of the elbow body under an interference fit and a grooveextending along an outer edge thereof to be connected with an upper endof the fence post under an interference fit.

The insertion hole may have a circular cross section and the groove mayhave a circular cross section.

The connector may be formed of a plastic material.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a method ofassembling an elbow on a fence post includes: attaching a connector toan upper end of the fence post, and attaching a lower end of an elbowbody to the connector. The elbow includes the elbow body and theconnector, the connector includes an insertion hole in a middle thereofto be connected with the lower end of the elbow body under aninterference fit and a groove extending along an outer edge thereof tobe connected with the upper end of the fence post under an interferencefit.

The method may further include attaching a screw to laterally fix theconnector, the fence post and the elbow body.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, a fence includes afence post, and an elbow. The elbow includes an elbow body having anupper end and a lower end facing away from the upper end; and aconnector. The connector includes an insertion hole in a middle thereofto be connected with the lower end of the elbow body under aninterference fit and a groove extending along an outer edge thereof tobe connected with an upper end of the fence post under an interferencefit.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

These and/or other aspects will become apparent and more readilyappreciated from the following description of the embodiments, taken inconjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of an elbow on a fence post.

FIG. 2 is an expanded view of section I of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a schematic illustration of the connector.

FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration of the assembly of an elbow on afence post.

FIG. 5 is a schematic illustration of the assembly of an elbow on afence post.

In the drawings, some of the reference numerals are:

1—elbow body, 2—connector, 3—post, 4—insertion hole, 5—annular groove.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Reference will now be made in more detail to embodiments, examples ofwhich are illustrated in the accompanying drawings, wherein likereference numerals refer to like elements throughout. In this regard,the present embodiments may have different forms and should not beconstrued as being limited to the descriptions set forth herein.Accordingly, the embodiments are merely described below, by referring tothe figures, to explain aspects of the present description. As usedherein, the term “and/or” includes any and all combinations of one ormore of the associated listed items. Expressions such as “at least oneof,” when preceding a list of elements, modify the entire list ofelements and do not modify the individual elements of the list. Further,the use of “may” when describing embodiments of the present inventionrefers to “one or more embodiments of the present invention.”

As used herein, the terms “substantially,” “about,” and similar termsare used as terms of approximation and not as terms of degree, and areintended to account for the inherent deviations in measured orcalculated values that would be recognized by those of ordinary skill inthe art. Also, any numerical range recited herein is intended to includeall sub-ranges of the same numerical precision subsumed within therecited range. For example, a range of “1.0 to 10.0” is intended toinclude all subranges between (and including) the recited minimum valueof 1.0 and the recited maximum value of 10.0, that is, having a minimumvalue equal to or greater than 1.0 and a maximum value equal to or lessthan 10.0, such as, for example, 2.4 to 7.6. Any maximum numericallimitation recited herein is intended to include all lower numericallimitations subsumed therein and any minimum numerical limitationrecited in this specification is intended to include all highernumerical limitations subsumed therein. Accordingly, Applicant reservesthe right to amend this specification, including the claims, toexpressly recite any sub-range subsumed within the ranges expresslyrecited herein.

Spatially relative terms, such as “below,” “beneath,” “lower,” “above,”“upper,” and the like, may be used herein for ease of description todescribe one element or feature's relationship to another element(s) orfeature(s) as illustrated in the drawings. It will be understood thatthe spatially relative terms are intended to encompass differentorientations of the device in use or operation in addition to theorientation depicted in the drawings.

Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientificterms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by oneof ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. It will befurther understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly useddictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that isconsistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art andwill not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unlessexpressly so defined herein.

Hereinafter, the present invention will be described in more detail byexplaining example embodiments of the invention with reference to theattached drawings. Sizes of components in the drawings may beexaggerated for convenience of explanation. In other words, since sizesand thicknesses of components in the drawings are arbitrarilyillustrated for convenience of explanation, the following embodimentsare not limited thereto.

FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of an assembled fence post. FIG. 2 isan expanded view of section I of FIG. 1. FIG. 3 is a schematicallyillustration of the connector.

Referring to FIGS. 1 to 3, an elbow 100 for a fence post 3 includes anelbow body 1 and a connector 2. The elbow body 1 has an upper end and alower end facing away from the upper end. The connector 2 includes aninsertion hole 4 in the middle thereof and a groove 5 extending along anouter edge (e.g., at the outer ring) of the connector 2.

The connector 2 includes the insertion hole 4 in the middle thereofconfigured to be connected to the lower end of the elbow body 1 under aninterference fit and the groove 5 extending along the outer edge thereofconfigured to be connected to the fence post 3 under an interferencefit.

The elbow body 1 and the post 3 are connected through the connector 2,with the lower end of the elbow body 1 inserted into the insertion hole4 under an interference fit (e.g., a friction fit). An upper end of thepost 3 is inserted into the groove 5 at the outer edge of the connector2 under an interference fit.

The insertion hole 4 has a shape that matches with the shape of thelower end of the elbow body 1. For example, if the lower end of theelbow body 1 has a circular shape (e.g., a circular cross section), theinsertion hole 4 also has a circular shape to accommodate the lower endof the elbow body 1 with an interference fit. The diameter (e.g., innerdiameter) of the insertion hole 4 may be slightly greater than the outerdiameter of the lower end of the elbow body 1. For example, the diameterof the insertion hole 4 may be 0.01 to 0.02 mm greater than the outerdiameter of the lower end of the elbow body 1.

The insertion hole 4 may be defined by one or more side walls 4A and abottom surface 4B. The one (e.g., 1 side wall when the insertion holehas a circular cross section) or more (e.g., 4 side walls when theinsertion hole has a rectangular cross section) side walls 4A form theshape and space to accommodate the lower end of the elbow body 1 underan interference fit. The elbow body 1 is inserted into the insertionhole 4 through an opening on top and rests on the bottom surface 4B ofthe insertion hole 4. The insertion hole may have a depth of about 50 mmto about 125 mm, for example, about 75 mm to about 100 mm. However, thepresent invention is not limited thereto. For example, the shape of thelower end of the elbow body and the shape of the insertion hole may beany suitable shape, e.g., star shaped, triangular shaped, trapzoidshaped, irregular shaped, etc.

The post 3 may be a hollow tube with an external diameter (orcross-section) that is greater (e.g., much greater) than that of theelbow body 1. The post 3 may have a post wall 3A with a set thicknessTH1. The groove (e.g., annular groove) 5 extending along the outer edgeof the connector 2 has a shape matches with the shape of the post wall.The groove 5 has an inner wall 5A, an outer wall 5B, and a bottomsurface 5C defining the groove 5 therebetween. The portion of theconnector 2 surrounded by the inner wall 5A fits inside the hollow spaceof the post 3 defined by the post wall 3A. The upper end of the post 3is inserted into the groove 5 through an opening facing downward underan interference fit. For example, when the post 3 has a circular crosssection, the groove 5 also has a circular shape to accommodate the upperend of the post 3, and the outer diameter of groove 5 (i.e., thediameter of the outer wall 5B) may be slightly greater than the outerdiameter of the upper end of the post 3. For example, the outer diameter(i.e., the diameter of the outer wall 5B) of the groove 5 may be 0.01 to0.02 mm greater than the outer diameter of the upper end of the post 3.

FIGS. 4 and 5 show a schematic illustration of the assembly of an elbowon a fence post. Referring to FIGS. 4 and 5, during assembly stage, theconnector 2 is connected to the post 3 by inserting the upper end ofpost 3 into the groove 5 of the connector 2. The outer diameter ofannular groove 5 connects with the outer diameter of post 3 under aninterference fit. For example, the interference amount (e.g., thedifference in the diameter or length of corresponding sides) may bewithin 0.01-0.02 mm. After that, the lower end of elbow body 1 isinserted into the insertion hole 4 of the connector 2. The innerdiameter of insertion hole 4 connects with the outer diameter of thelower end of elbow body 1 under an interference fit. For example, theinterference amount (e.g., the difference in the diameter or length ofcorresponding sides) may be within 0.01-0.02 mm.

Moreover, a screw can be used to clasp (fix or secure) the post 3, theconnector 2 and elbow body 1 laterally together so as to make theassembly more durable and reliable.

The connector 2 may be made of any suitable material, such as a metal(e.g., iron, stainless steel, copper, etc.), a plastic material (e.g.,engineering plastic, ABS, rubber, etc.), or a ceramic material. Theconnector according to embodiments of the present disclosure is not onlysimple in terms of its structure, but also can be produced at a lowcost, for example, it can be made of plastic.

While a curved elbow has been shown in the figures, the presentinvention is not limited thereto. For example, a straight shaped elbowmay be connected to a fence post utilizing the connector describedabove.

With the above structure, the elbow for a fence post directly connectsthe elbow body and the post with the connector to replace theconventional approach of a connection device consisting of a connectingrod, an upper and a lower connecting piece and a spring connectingpiece, etc., thus has such merits as simplified structure, low cost andconvenience to installation.

It should be understood that the example embodiments described thereinshould be considered in a descriptive sense only and not for purposes oflimitation. Descriptions of features or aspects within each embodimentshould typically be considered as available for other similar featuresor aspects in other embodiments.

While one or more embodiments of the present invention have beendescribed with reference to the figures, it will be understood by thoseof ordinary skill in the art that various changes in form and detailsmay be made therein without departing from the spirit and scope of thepresent invention as defined by the following claims, and equivalentsthereof.

What is claimed is:
 1. An elbow for a fence post, the elbow comprising:an elbow body having an upper end and a lower end facing away from theupper end; and a connector, wherein the connector comprises an insertionhole in a middle thereof to be connected with the lower end of the elbowbody under an interference fit and a groove extending along an outeredge thereof to be connected with an upper end of the fence post underan interference fit.
 2. The elbow of claim 1, wherein the insertion holehas a circular cross section and is configured to be connected with thelower end of the elbow body under an interference fit, and the groovehas a circular cross section and is configured to be connected with theupper end of the fence post under an interference fit.
 3. The elbow ofclaim 1, wherein the connector is formed of a plastic material.
 4. Amethod of assembling an elbow on a fence post, the method comprising:attaching a connector to an upper end of the fence post, and attaching alower end of an elbow body to the connector, wherein the elbow comprisesthe elbow body and the connector, the connector comprises an insertionhole in a middle thereof to be connected with the lower end of the elbowbody under an interference fit and a groove extending along an outeredge thereof to be connected with the upper end of the fence post underan interference fit.
 5. The method of claim 4, further comprisingattaching a screw to laterally fix the connector, the fence post and theelbow body.
 6. A fence comprising: a fence post, and an elbow, whereinthe elbow comprises: an elbow body having an upper end and a lower endfacing away from the upper end; and a connector, wherein the connectorcomprises an insertion hole in a middle thereof to be connected with thelower end of the elbow body under an interference fit and a grooveextending along an outer edge thereof to be connected with an upper endof the fence post under an interference fit.
 7. The fence of claim 6,wherein the connector is made of a plastic material.